Abstract
Higher education in Pakistan is analyzed here within the context of the country’s historical and political development. Critical for understanding the present is a description of the state of education of Muslims well before the partition of India. From 1947 onwards, growth periods in higher education are identified and their impact evaluated. The benefits of increased access are weighed against the problems created by the post-2002 rapid expansion of the university system. Academic freedom and campus culture are examined together with the role universities have played in fostering terrorism. The most vexing issue is to define quality of education, without which comparisons are meaningless. It is argued that at least for the hard sciences, and probably social sciences and humanities as well, the present international ranking system is inadequate and education specialists need to come up with a general framework that takes into account ground realities specific to countries like Pakistan.
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Hoodbhoy, P. (2021). Pakistan’s Higher Education System. In: Sarangapani, P.M., Pappu, R. (eds) Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0032-9_64
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0032-9_64
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